I read this the other day to
you, Sunday, and couldn't shake it. I thought, well, I think
I've got a message in it. And it turned out to be something
totally different. So we may get two or three messages. And
then I thought, well, we're in the Psalms already. I'm jumping
ahead, but it'll be about, we've got about three years till we
get here. If I went through one Psalm a week. So I don't think
we'll need to hear it again if it's the same thing in three
years. A believer's life is pictured here in Psalm 130. This is from
the moment we first hear, the first time, that all these words
and this religion of grandma and grandpa going to church,
all those things, old mom and dad, stuff they did. We just
go along and get along. The first time we hear, uh-oh,
I've never seen that before. I didn't know that. The first
time we hear and we're converted in our new hearts, this here's
the story of that. That's what happened. And this
here's that believer that's already been regenerated. It's already
been given life. You have everlasting life in you. Christ dwells in
you. This is us. This is the order
of it. Sometimes it's every year. Sometimes it's every month. Sometimes
it's every week, every day, every hour. Sometimes this flow is
down and up and down. It's every minute. It's fast
sometimes. And this is a picture of believer's
life from the moment that we do hear the Lord for the first
time. We see Him for the first time. Overall, from that moment
until that appointed hour that the Lord gives us and He takes
us home. This is the 80,000 foot view, the 8,000 foot view, and
the 8 millimeter view. It's every bit of it. We can
see that here in this text. All of mankind, all of Adam's
race, everybody, have sinned against a holy God. And we are so prone to look at
our sin. But oh, if we could look to the
one we sinned against. He has mercy. He delights to
show mercy. But we'll be shocked the first
time we find out we're sinners. I ain't as sweet as my mom thought
I was. I've sinned against the Holy
Ghost. The first time I thought of that. And then throughout
our lives, as that backpack of sin we carry with us, and we
know what we are because we know Him. I know what I am because
I know the one I sinned against. But instead of looking to my
sin, if I could look to Him, There's mercy to be found. There's
forgiveness in Christ. Do you need deliverance from
the guilt and the burden of sin? Do I? This is for us. This is for us. It has been since
David wrote it. It's been true before that, but it has been
since David wrote it. Here in Psalm 130 verse 1. Out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord,
my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waiteth
for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say
more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope
in the Lord, for with the Lord there's mercy, and with Him is
plenteous redemption, and He shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. I pray we can see one more time
how holy God is. How holy He is in justice. He's
right. How holy He is in His Word. It's
true. It cannot fail. It will never
fail. How holy He is in love. People
say, well God's love, love is of Him and He is love, but He's
holy. What's that love? It's holy love.
That's what it is. How can we see all this? How
can we know these things? Because of His Holy Son. That
Holy One of Israel. That's the only way it's going
to be manifested to a man, woman, or child. To be in Christ. That's where He's blessed us.
We see the holiness of God. When we see that, against that
God we've sinned against, we know something of our sin. The
Lord told us plainly in the scriptures, and people talk so much to me
about the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit comes speaking
of Christ, didn't it? And when He comes, He's going
to convict the world of sin. Those that are His, Jew, Gentile,
it doesn't make a difference. The Spirit's going to come to
His child, and we're going to be convinced and convicted of
sin, and then of righteousness, and of judgment, isn't it? holiness of the Lord. The one
we've sinned against, what my sin is, that comes first. Everything
begins with the Lord, doesn't it? That's the comparison we
have. If we're convicted of sin, It's in the lightness, in light
of Him, of His holiness. And the older we get in the faith,
as the Lord grows us in grace and knowledge and understanding,
we see Him holier and holier. We understand that's God. He's
sovereign. We got to understand some things.
But as we see Him more and more, how perfect His Word is, how
perfect He is, how right He is, oh, the lower we see ourselves.
That's growing. Growing and grace is growing
down. Told you a lot. It's true. And it ain't pretty
and it ain't pleasant most of the time. Hurts sometimes, don't
it? But what a blessing it is to see Him high and lifted up.
And this is in light of Him. This is in light of the one that
we sinned against. It's not in light of somebody
else. I might be okay. I ain't hardly
as bad as so-and-so, am I? I think I might be on manage
if I'm in comparison to somebody else. I'm not too bad if it's
against me. What if I compare myself now
with myself six months ago? Well, I'm doing okay. I might
be all right. Now, I need some help. I might
need a co-pilot. I might need a little working.
Somebody with a crutch to help me. But when I compare myself
in light of Him, His Holy Son, that fulfilled every jot and
tittle of that law, that was born of a virgin. And from the
Holy Spirit going into Mary until He come out of that grave and
spoke to His disciples and He ascended to glory. Perfection.
Perfection. To the likes I cannot, if I stood
up here and just talked about it for 17 years, I ain't scratched
the surface. Perfect. That's who we're compared
to. Our sin is in darkness compared to His great light. We don't
even comprehend it. That great prophet of God, Isaiah.
He's quoted more in the New Testament than anybody else. He said, In
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
I saw something to do about His holiness. He said there were
seraphims there. They had six wings. These are God's perfect
beings. These servants of His. These
angels. They got six wings and two of them they flew with. Two
of them covered their eyes and two of them covered their feet.
We can't even look upon Him. That's an angel of the Lord.
A seraphim He created that's there for Him. Can't even look
at Him. Cover our feet. Don't even look where we've been,
Lord. And they cried, they sang, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. They cried, holy, holy, holy. And that great prophet
said, then said I, woe is me. When he saw the Lord, saw him
for who he was, the holiness of him. For I am undone because
I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of unclean
people with unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. I know this world's wicked, but
now I know I'm wicked. Cause I've seen him. I can tell
you this world is waiting to go to prison. Watch the news
for five minutes. It ain't the good old days. There's
bad things happening. But boy, when I see him, I see
me. Now it's one on one. I can't
see for nobody else. Nobody else can see for me. Can't
listen to nobody else. And I ought to be listening for
myself. When I see him, I see me. I'm unclean, I'm undone.
Job was righteous. Job begins the oldest book in
the Bible. It says he was perfect, he was upright, he feared God,
and he eschewed evil. And Job said at the end of that
book, Job 42, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.
I've heard this my whole life. I grew up under sound gospel.
I was in the right place at the right time and right uniform.
I've been sojourning for 150 years, however long. He'd been
alive at that point. Job's an old fella. He said,
I've heard of thee by the ear of the ear, but now mine eyes
see thee. Now I see. Now I see thee. Wherefore I abhor
myself. I repent in dust and ashes. I
want to cover up. Take ash and dust and cover me.
I don't want you to see my skin. I know what I am now because
I've seen you. John, Apostle John, saw his way up in years.
On the Isle of Patmos, in Revelation 1, 17, he said, When I saw him,
I fell at his feet as dead. I was like a dead man. Shut up
to sin. People say, that's terrible.
No, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. That's what
David's writing here. He is in the depths. Depths. He's deep down. That's when we
pray to the Lord fervently, isn't it? When the sun's shining, you're
at the beach, and everything's going great, you got some money
in your pocket, do you pray fervently? Lord, be with me. No, you don't,
do you? I don't. But boy, when you're
in the depths, it's as bad as it gets. I have no hope. I'm not halfway down a miry.
There's a whole mess of people that's ankle deep in a miry pit. When I'm at the bottom of that
pit, I cannot climb out of. Sun's closing off, it's so deep.
And he cried out fervently. That was a man of old. He wrote
on this passage, on this psalm here, 130. And he called it the
progression of the soul. He said, this is a barometer
that marks the progression of the weather. So does this psalm.
Sentence by sentence record the progress of a redeemed soul.
This is us. He said, we should ask ourselves
as we read each line, We'll go through this, we'll read each
line, and we should ask ourselves this, have I ever been there?
Have I ever been in the depths? I don't mean I've kind of had
some, I might have shed a tear, I have some kind of guilt, I
shed a tear watching commercials sometimes. Have I ever been in
the depths to cry out to Him? Have I ever felt and experienced
this truly? Do I know this to be true, what
He says? When He declares, there's forgiveness
in Him. Do I believe Him? Do I know it's
true? Know it's true. There's no forgiveness anywhere
else. It ain't me. It ain't nobody else. Do I know
it to be true? Is this my rock? Is this my refuge, His Word,
His promise? Is He my help in time of need?
And do I truly now wait and hope in the Lord only? Do I really,
I mean really, do I really wait on Him? Do I really hope in Him?
I've spoken with other believers throughout my life, and each
one of them seems to be at one of these verses. They're at one
point of this wheel, this cycle, circle of life. So I was going
to name it, I ain't going to though. They're at some point
in this, and this progression, it continues to the next verse.
And then it goes to the next verse. And at the end, When we
get to the end and we cry out to Israel, here's what the Lord
did. We forget, we look to ourselves and we stumble in this world
and we go right back to verse 1. That's been my experience. It's been the experience of every
believer throughout time. Life's a vicious cycle sometimes.
If someone's not been in these depths that we just read of,
if they've not truly crawled out to Christ to save them, to
hear them, Lord save me, Lord hear me, be mindful of me, remember
me Lord. If they don't truly think that
forgiveness is His and His alone, His and His alone, then they
truly do not fear Him. And if they don't fear Him, they
have no patience. There's no waiting. There's no
relief. There's no contentment. There's no peace in the heart.
And they have no hope. It's the exact opposite of everything
David just cried out. The Lord told us in Ezekiel 18,
Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the Father, so
also the soul of the Son. It's mine. And the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. This body will go back to dust.
That's where it comes from. It will go back to the dirt.
And every soul that He's given is going to go back to Him. It'll
be a judgment, won't it? And when the Lord does a work
in the heart, when He gives life to that one that was dead in
trespasses and sins, when He births him, He reveals Christ
in them, there's a response. There's a response to that. When
we find out who He is, we find out what we are, there's a response.
We cry out to Him. It says in verse 1, Psalm 131,
Oh, the depths have I cried. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. That is what that new heart that
the Lord gives is going to do. It's going to cry out to Him
in a true heartfelt conviction of sin. Honest. Naked before
the Lord. Fully exposed. I couldn't imagine
with that. We all have bad dreams that don't
show up. You ain't got your pants on at school or to speak or something
like that. You stand before the Holy God
that knows all. You can tell me something, I'll
believe it. He knows the heart. I cry out to Him. It's said in
Psalm 40, David wrote, for innumerable evils have encompassed me about
my iniquities, have taken a hold upon me so that I'm not able
to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore,
my heart faileth. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me. This truth that I am, this
nakedness before Him, it overwhelms me. I'm going to fail. And we
cry out to Him. Deliver me. Out of the depths
have I cried. The depths of what? The depths
of my evil thoughts. The depths of that law that I've
broken it. How far I've broken it. My pride. Boy, that's deep. My doubt. My doubt in His Word. My unbelief. My pain. my sorrow, my true sorrow, my
depression. That's what that leads to. If
we know, have a glimpse of what we are and have any interactions
with sin without light, that's true depression, true sorrow,
true pain. That's all because of what? Because
of my sin. Because of me. What's the reason I cried to
the Lord? Because of me. Not because of somebody else, not
because I was praying through and I got on a list somewhere,
some prayer chain that's mutiny against God because I sinned
against Him. That's what I am. Cry to the
Lord. Don't cry to Mary. Don't cry
to a man. We don't cry on a hotline, one
of those prayer lines on a 1-800 number. You cry to Him, to the
Lord. Have I ever been there? I write
this, I type it out for me. You ain't knowing nobody there
with me. Have I ever been there? Have I ever really been made
by His mercies? His mercy, His providence, His
sovereignty. Have I been made to cry out like that? Lord be
with me. Lord save me. Save me. Our sin will have an impact on
us, but it has an impact on those around us too. But if that's
all we're sorry over, we ain't cried out. I don't like that. The poor choices I make and the
sin that I commit, it's mine and it affects those around me.
I hate that. Boy, the natural man can cry
over that, but that's not crying out to God. We've sinned against
the Holy God and we cry out to Him only. That prodigal son took
his inheritance early, said, Daddy, I'm leaving. And he went
and he blew it all, didn't he? He was down there feeding them
pigs and would give a ear of pig, corn husk to a pig and he'd
take a bite. He'd give it to the pig and he'd
take a bite. And he said, the servants at my father's house
eat better than this. I'll go back to Sweet Floors.
I'll go clean toilets in Daddy's house. It says, I will rise and
go to my father. I will say to him, Father, I
have sinned against heaven and before thee. I've sinned against
God and you saw it. Boy, from one believer to another
one, you'd be mad. My feelings don't matter right
now, do they? Those convicting his child of
sin, He said, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am
no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired
servants. Make me as a bond slave. Make
me a servant to you, a slave. Oh, our Lord told this. What
was the end state of that? Crying out. He said, go get the
best robe. Put a ring on him. Go slay a
lamb. Call everybody around the county.
My son's home. David, he had arrived sent off
to be killed and got back to Sheba. His friend had family,
didn't he? That loyal servant of his, that
loyal general, had a beautiful wife. He had friends and family
and co-workers and all kinds of things, didn't he? He was
a member of that community. They weren't alone. They were
hurt, weren't they? Did David cry out to all those people?
He said, I'm so sorry I've offended you. I've hurt you. I've took
your son or your cousin or your brother. He said, I acknowledge
my transgressions, my sins ever before me against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. When he said
that, he said that thou mayest judge, be justified when thou
speakest and be clear when thou judgest. There was no separating
that. Jonah, he ended up in the belly
of a whale because he disobeyed God's word. The Lord spoke to
him, to his prophet. He was already a believer, wasn't
he? Of course he was God's prophet. He said, you're going to go to
Nineveh and I'm going to give you words to say. He got on the first boat
to Tarsus. There was pain for those on that
boat with him. A storm came. They thought they were going
to die. And through that pain, the Lord saved a bunch of them
on that boat. And Jonah wound up in the whale's
belly. And he said, I cried by reason of mine affliction. Did the Lord do all that? Of
course He did. Did the Lord prepare the fish? Of course He did. He
prepared that whale. Did he allow that to happen?
Did he have a ticket for selling Joppa? Of course he did. What did his child call out?
Mine affliction unto the Lord. I did this. And he heard me,
and out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my
voice. Blimey, they said, here comes
Christ. He's coming. He couldn't say
nothing, but he could hear. And they said, he's coming. He's
walking by, and he's going to keep on going. He's been going
through every town around here. And he cried out, didn't he?
He cried out. He couldn't hold his peace. And
he said, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they said, hush
it. Be quiet. Big people are doing stuff here.
Important folks are here. We've got big things going on.
And he cried out the more. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. If you're burdened and heavy laden, cry out to him.
cry out to Him. If you're in a whale's belly,
cry out to Him. If you're in a deep pit, cry
out to Him. If you've committed a heinous crime. Somebody says,
well, I've just sinned too much. That ain't humbleness, and that
ain't self-deprecation. You don't think God's able. That's it. Why won't you come
to Him? Well, I've just done too much. You think too little of
Him and too highly of yourself. He's able to save to the uttermost.
Here in verse 1 it says, Out of the depths have I cried unto
thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. Oh, to have the ear of the king.
Imagine that right now. You've watched the news and said,
I wish I could talk to the president. I wish I could have his ear for
a minute. to have the ear of the King. That's the progression
of the soul. It's a truly honest conviction
of sin, and then it's a sincere calling out on the name of the
Lord. And whoever calls on Him, Paul told us that in Romans 10,
didn't he? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. This is a prayer. It's a song.
They sang this in old church. This is a prayer, isn't it? Calling
on the name of the Lord is prayer. It's humble prayer. It's from
the depths. It's from down low, deep in us.
It's groanings. You ever thought of what you
are and just went, ugh? That's a good prayer. Fits to him, that
one you offended. Conviction of sin, there's a
sincere calling on the Lord, and there's personal judgment
of myself. I know what I did wrong. It says in verse 3, If
thou, Lord, shouldest mark with iniquities, O Lord, who shalt
stand? If you look at me and me only,
If all you see whenever I get for your throne of judgment is
Kevin Bailey Thacker, I cannot stand in your presence. That's the opposite of, on this
side of the fence, that's the opposite of, well, I'm not perfect. I can't be in a room with him.
He can't be in a room with me. That's a more important way of
putting it. He can't be in a room with me if all he sees is me. Let
God be true and every man a liar. I'm a liar, you're the Lord.
You're just when you speak. That Canaanite woman, she'd come
to the Lord and said, Lord help me. He said, it's not me to take
children's bread and cast it to dogs. He said, you're a dog.
Does she disagree? Don't you talk to me like that.
I'm grown. You know how old I am? You know
what I've lived through? I've lived through three Great Depressions.
Does she say that to take a stand? No, she said truth, Lord. Truth. Yet the dogs eat the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. Ophiulemon recorded all that
that Paul had to say. Every bit of it. What a horrible
disobedient and unprofitable servant he was, and that's what
he brought to... Onesimus recorded it. That's what he brought to
Philemon, wasn't it? He agreed with it. That sounds like the
depths, but that's good news. People say, forgive yourself.
Ha! That's what I wrote. That won't happen to the child
of God. We won't forget in this world what He saved us from,
ourselves. I think every one of His children throughout the
scriptures that's listed. Uzziah the leper, the thief on
a cross, doubting Thomas, Rahab the harlot. And they agree with
Him, don't they? Because we judge ourselves. That's
what we're told. For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. That's where the good news comes
from. If I find fault with myself before I find fault with somebody
else, the Lord's done that. A child of God will experience
conviction of sin, they'll call on Him sincerely, and they'll
have judgment of myself. I'll know what I am. I'll agree
with Him. I'll take sides with God against myself. And you know
what happens after that? That's all rough stuff, and that
needs roughed. If you're going to have a surgery,
I don't have to cut on you. That's rough stuff that's true. What
happens then? Mercy and grace and forgiveness
come. That's what he does to his child. It says in verse 4,
but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Someone wrote these two verses
and they said this contains the whole meaning of the Scriptures.
This is it. Boy, we could spend eons here,
couldn't we? If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. I can't come to you. I've offended you. Forgiveness
is in you. You're the source of it. And
you're going to be feared whenever forgiveness is given. All the
sacrifices of that Old Testament, it was all saying and pointing
to Christ that there's forgiveness with Thee, O Lord. You gave us
a substitute. You provide yourself a lamb.
In all the New Testament, we see the righteousness of Christ.
We see forgiveness of sin in His blood. He's righteous. He's the sin atonement. There's
forgiveness with Him. That's what we see. It's the
Lord's forgiveness. He provided Himself a land. Now
don't forget this. He's going to mark sin. He's
going to mark sin. This is one of His children speaking.
that will not be swept underneath the rug. He's a just and holy
God. But He's either going to mark
it on that person that's self-righteous and thinks they made a decision
for God and thinks they were saved under some false gospel
and they just come to know Him because they just figured it
all out. He'll put it on you. If I come to Him that way, He'll
put it on me. Or He'll mark it on His Son at Calvary. He'll
count it on His Son because it's there. And Christ will bear that
burden, bear that guilt, bear that sin and shame for his people
or you're going to bear it yourself. You don't want to do that. Your
blood cannot atone. It ain't worth enough. My blood
can't atone. It ain't worth nothing. It's
inequity and inequity. It's sin and it's less than zero.
Why? Why would He do this? Why would
the Lord set it up that He would be the just and the justifier?
That thou mayest be feared. He remains holy, an unchangeable
God, and He can justify a sinner. You come up with that one. No,
you can't. He did. And we don't even enter into
it. What a thought. All honor and all reverence is
to our Lord for what He's done for His people. Every bit of
it. You may be feared. What do we
fear? I've told you that before. You start out as a small child,
physically fearing your parents. You get spanked. But then as
time goes on, that physical fear, like, oh, buddy, I'm in the belly
of the whale, that turns into honor and respect. You don't
want to disrespect your parents. That's what happens. As mature
believers, what do you fear? I fear departing from His presence.
I fear I won't get a word from Him. I fear His Spirit won't
be with me. I fear I won't be with Him for
eternity, or for the day. It doesn't make a difference.
It's the same to me. I fear I'll bring reproach on His gospel,
on Him. I fear I'll bring reproach on
His people, or wound them, hurt their feelings. I fear those
things. I have an article in next week's
bulletin that Old Brother Don wrote. He had some fears in preaching. He said, I fear preaching for
success Self-confidence and self-sufficiency. He said, I fear to neglect my
own soul while ministering the soul of others. I fear speaking
either more or less than what God has revealed. I fear preaching
a lifeless form of doctrine rather than proclaiming the living word
of the living God. And he said, I fear falling into
the habit of preaching about the gospel rather than directly
preaching the gospel. Our fear of the Lord is given
in the heart. And we honor that Holy One. We
honor Him. We take Him into consideration.
Our pure minds are stirred up. He's in remembrance. He's what
we think of. We come to His table, but, buddy, do you ever eat a
meal and forget to thank Him? I do. I ought to be in remembrance
all the time, shouldn't I? Whenever we start fearing Him
and He gives that, that's when wisdom begins, doesn't it? What's
wisdom? Fear the Lord. The beginning
of wisdom is fear the Lord. We start getting a little wise.
And when we get that little bit of wisdom, we see who He is and
really who we are. We get more of a handle on what's
going on in this world. Then we get a little bit of patience.
And we wait on Him. It says in verse 5, I will wait
for the Lord. My soul doth wait. And in His
Word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say, more than
they that watch for the morning. Now we can wait. Now we can wait. Is David still in that deep,
dark pit? He might be. But he remembers
his Lord. He remembers His mercies, His
faithfulness. And he says, I can wait now. I can wait now. I can hold on for a little bit.
I can wait until the morning. I'm going to watch earnestly
for Him. But I can wait. I can make it a little bit longer.
Isn't that how it is in this world? As we can see Him, who
our Sovereign Almighty God is, our Lord, as we see Him, do we
fear an evil leader as much? Do we fear going to work with
an evil boss that's just mean to us? No, we fear the one that
put that one there. Now we've got a little bit of
wisdom, don't we? Now we can wait a little bit.
Now we can wait on Him a little bit, can't we? We go from our
sin and shame, to crying out to the Lord, to seeing Christ
as our all in all, one more time. Fearing Him, honoring Him, His
person and His work, His forgiveness of sins. Then we wait on the
Lord eagerly, like a night watch waiting for morning. I was up
late a few times at night, in the military they call stand
two. That's right, it's the first dawn of light. Normally, throughout
history, that's when the enemy attacks. But leading up to that,
you can't see nothing, and it's dark. And every cricket you hear,
you think's gunfire, and every twig you hear. Last week, it
was daytime, and I thought there was somebody living underneath
the bridge there by our house, and it was a little tiny bird that wasn't
happening, rustling the leaves around, building a nest. But
at nighttime, you hear it, and you think, boy, if I could just,
if the sun had just come up. If the sun would just come up,
I could see. Then I could know what that sound is. As eager
as I was for that sun to come up, that's how I wait for Him.
If I can just make it through the day, the Lord might come
this evening. He might take me home tonight. Them clouds may
part tomorrow morning. I'm excited. I can wait on Him
because I know Him. We go through all those, and
then we have assurance and patience and desire to be with Him, and
then we comfort others. that are suffering that weight
of their sin. Because they're in a different
spot on that circle, ain't they? Somebody just come in and said,
I can't even look at myself in the mirror. With comfort then,
look here in verse 7. David cries out, Psalm 137, verse
7. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
He hopes in Him, don't he? I have hope, I can wait on Him.
Now I'm going to tell you. Let Israel hope in the Lord. For
with the Lord there is mercy. And with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. You see that cycle start out
just, I'm so deep I can't even look at my own face. And I cry
out to the Lord. Lord, hear me. Because I don't
think you hear me now. Lord, be mindful of me. Hear
my supplications. And if you saw me as I was, I'm
in trouble. I can't stand. But, in you's
forgiveness, that you may be feared. You remember forgiveness?
I'm going to honor him now. Now you can rejoice, can't you?
Oh, now I can wait on you. Now my soul waits, and I have
hope. And hope ain't a tactic. Let's
say I wish. That's an earnest expectation.
I can wait on him, earnestly expecting his word to come to
fruition, to come to pass. And then I'm going to tell my
brethren, Israel, I'm looking at you. Wait for the Lord. Wait for it. Trust in Him. Hope in Him. Mercy is there. Wherever He is,
is mercy. And it's plenteous redemption. Somebody says, I
just don't think the Lord can save me. Plenteous redemption. How plenteous is the Lord's plenteous?
More than we can imagine. Go to Him. Cry to Him. And He
shall redeem Israel from all His iniquities. Ain't no chance
that He ain't going to. He shall. Everyone that's His,
His spiritual Israel, He's going to redeem them. It's done. The work's finished. It will
come to pass. Because we remember who He is,
isn't it? When we get there, when we can declare and comfort
brethren, if we take any assurance in my standing of faith, boy,
I've got some strength to me. I've been doing this a while.
I've been through a bunch of trials. I've got some strength.
I'm standing in my faith. I'm standing in my walk in this
world. I walk like a man that believes God. If I stand that
I can comfort others, I have comfort that I can comfort you.
I'm starting to know what to say to people. Go hear a gospel
preach. That's good advice. I was telling
a man that yesterday. I said, I don't know why I used
to be so afraid to say that. People say, you got any advice for me?
Sure do. Find out where Christ is. Preach. Go sit underneath
it. Don't leave. If I'm standing in me, my assurance,
my faith, my walk, my comforting others, pride comes before a
fall. And you know where I'm going to end up? If I'm His,
He keeps me. You know where I'm going to end
up? Right back at verse 1. Crying out to Him. Oh Lord, I'm
in the depths. Be with me. Those that struggle in unbelief,
what don't you believe? That's a hard question, isn't
it? If I'm struggling with unbelief, what don't you believe? If we
can answer honestly, you know what the sentence always begins
with? I. I don't feel, I don't think, I
don't this, I don't that. I. Problem with unbelief is I. Anytime I have unbelief, you
know what my problem is? Me. I. That's my problem, isn't it?
Trust the one that's able. If you're in the depths, trust
Him that's able. There's forgiveness in here.
Fear the Lord, honor Him, wait on Him, and hope in Him. Earnestly
expect what He says to come to pass, because it will. It will. And He shall redeem Israel from
all His iniquities. I hope that was a blessing to
you.